Microsoft Gives Xbox One New Life in the Living Room

Microsoft announced a handful of new living-room-hub features for the Xbox One console at the Gamescom conference in Germany on Tuesday.

Among the planned capabilities is a media player app that would let users load photos, video, and audio files stored on devices plugged into the Xbox One via USB. Eventually, Microsoft said the app will also be updated to connect to certain home media servers via the DLNA protocol. When the media player app does arrive, it’ll work with more than 30 different media file formats.

While that alone is a big draw for so-called cord cutters, Microsoft is doing more—at least in some countries—to provide cheaper, easier access to mainstream broadcast TV content.

The company also plans to release the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner, a hardware adapter that will allow the console to receive over-the-air digital TV channels. The tuner will first launch in October in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain, giving the console almost DVR-like capabilities, such as the ability to pause live TV shows.

For the markets where the tuner is launched, an update to the Xbox SmartGlass app will let users stream live TV to smartphones and tablets on the same Wi-Fi network as their console. Users will be able to pause, play and rewind live shows on their mobile devices, even if someone else is playing a video game on the Xbox One console at the same time.

None of the announced software updates are available to the public yet, and Microsoft hasn’t said just when—or if—they’ll reach every market. But the company says it’s starting with an early-access program, beginning later this month, that will let a small number of users in on the new features ahead of a wider launch.